Sunday, 13 April 2014

Fashion Fix: Spring/Summer 2014 trend Shirt Dress with extra panels

This is already one of my favourite outfits for spring! I love the subtle colour and pattern clash, resulting in a dress that looks far more expensive than it actually was. The dress was left over from a photoshoot, but of course didn't fit as it's a size 8. It was at this point I came up with a simple sewing plan to make this dress fit, whilst at the same time incorporating another fabric and pattern into what could look a bit like a nurse's outfit if I wasn't careful!

shirt dresses as seen at Alexander Wang and Dior, photos Google Images

Shirt dresses are seeing a resurge, they are all over the spring summer catwalks for 2014 and graced the front page of this weekend's Saturday Telegraph's Magazine.

You will need:

unpicker

dressmaking pins

dressmaking scissors

1/2 metre of fabric for panels. Choose a contrasting coloured or printed fabric to add a pop of colour to the dress.

sewing machine

matching thread.

How to do it:

Unpick the side seams and 15 cm of the hem either side of each side seam, press open.

measure how wide you want your panel to be. Mark and cut out rectangles with this width plus 3 cm seam allowance and length the same length as open seam plus same seam allowance as dress hem.

turn dress inside out and pin in panel right down to the raw hem of the dress. Allow for the seam to taper inwards at the top as it reaches the bottom point of the sleeve.